Advertisers place promotions or other advertisement in locations where they are viewed (and hopefully absorbed) by other persons or entities. These locations can be both physical and/or virtual (i.e., off-line and/or on-line). For example, such locations include television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. These advertisements or promotions can be directed regionally, according to cities, counties, states, or countries in which they are placed.
Additionally, a wide variety of different mediums may be utilized for advertising. Advertisers choose specific mediums and locations for the placement of their advertisements in order to attempt to expose the advertisement to an intended audience. For example, a marketer of female cosmetics may choose to build awareness for a new line of female cosmetics by placing an advertisement in a magazine that has a large readership of females.
Various methods of advertising and/or promoting have associated advantages and drawbacks. Thus, advertisers are often inclined to pay professional advertising organizations, entities, and individuals to target and dispense their advertisements, as they seek more effective mediums, locations, and techniques for targeting, placing, and measuring the effectiveness of promotions. The advertisements and/or promotions that are suggested or used by these entities typically include expensive media or printed materials that have high distribution costs associated with them. Even Internet-based promotions, which tend to be quite efficient, still have high costs associated with them, since popular web sites often charge a premium on a per-impression basis for placing banners or links on their web pages. Further, while Internet use has increased, it is desirable to provide a form of promotional advertisement that is more readily viewed by the consuming public without having to log on to a computer.
The assignee of the present invention described in previous applications, methods and systems for providing targeted advertisement on a package to be delivered to a recipient. Advertisement information is received from an advertiser that includes one or more advertisements that the advertiser desires to be placed. An advertisement for the package is either selected or created in response to analyzing the advertisement, package characteristics, and recipient characteristics. The advertisement is then placed on the package for delivery.